Explosions rock downtown Glens Falls

GLENS FALLS - Downtown Glens Falls resembled a war zone early Thursday as a series of flaming explosions rocked the pre-dawn darkness at Centennial Circle.

Nearby St. Mary's Academy canceled classes and buildings lost power forcing businesses to close for the day.

National Grid blamed the blasts on a faulty underground wire that corroded, began smoldering and somehow ignited, setting off a series of explosions that saw flames reach second-story windows.

"All of a sudden, ka-BOOM!," said Tony Massita, the city's Water & Sewer Department supervisor. "A big ka-BOOM! Some cars were going by. I was afraid somebody was going to get killed."

No one was injured during the incident.

Massita and three other workers had begun work shortly after 6 a.m. to investigate complaints about a sewer problem. Just as they started to put cameras into the system, a manhole cover blew off a short distance away at the intersection of Warren and Ridge streets.

City employee Chad DeZalia captured some explosions on his iPhone (see saratogian.com).

He and Massita called 911 and immediately began directing traffic away from the manhole and another about 100 feet up Ridge Street toward City Hall that also blew off.

Rich Morin was still in bed in his second-story residence at 20 Warren St.

"The weird thing is that my dog, Kiwi, grabbed my wrist two minutes before the first explosion," he said. "She's never grabbed me like that before."

Morin said he thought the first blast was an exploding transformer. When he looked out, Massita and DeZalia had already sprung into action.

"These guys jumped right in and were diverting cars away from Ridge Street," Morin said. "I went outside and there were two more explosions and a deep rumble."

He said he saw flames reach the second story above Scoville's Jewelry, at the corner of Ridge and Glen streets.

Ridge Street was closed for the day as National Grid crews worked to restore power. Company spokesman Patrick Stella said power was expected to come back on by mid-afternoon Thursday.

One theory is that recent heavy rains, carrying street-surface fuel and chemicals, caused an underground wire to corrode.

Thursday's incident was the fourth to hit the Capital Region since Sept. 19. Two similar blasts have occurred in Albany along with another in Troy.

"We see them as isolated incidents," Stella said. "It's highly unusual that they would happen in this short period of time."